Several key provisions in Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill' must be reworked, says Senate parliamentarian
Date: 2025-06-27T09:58:34.000Z
Title: US politics
Content: Hello and welcome to the live blog.
We start with news that several key provisions in Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' must be reworked or dropped, a Senate parliamentarian has said.
The New York Times reports that Elizabeth MacDonough, the parliamentarian who enforces the Senate's rules, has rejected a slew of major provisions, sending GOP leaders into a frenzy to try to salvage the legislation before next week's 4 July deadline.
The publication reports that MacDonough has said several of the measures in the legislation that would 'provide hundreds of billions of dollars in savings could not be included in the legislation in their current form'.
They include one that would 'crack down on strategies that many states have developed to obtain more federal Medicaid funds and another that would limit repayment options for student loan borrowers,' the NYT reports.
The report added that MacDonough 'has not yet ruled on all parts of the bill' and that the tax changes at the centerpiece of Trump's agenda 'are still under review'.
In his final pitch to congressional leaders and cabinet secretaries at the White House on Thursday, Donald Trump also made no mention of deadlines, as his marquee tax-and-spending bill develops a logjam that could threaten its passage through the Senate.
Meanwhile, Robert F Kennedy Jr's reconstituted vaccine advisory panel recommended against seasonal influenza vaccines containing specific preservative thimerosal – a change likely to send shock through the global medical and scientific community and possibly impact future vaccine availability. About two weeks ago, Kennedy fired all 17 experts on the panel and went on to appoint eight new members, at least half of whom have expressed scepticism about some vaccines, the New York Times reports. Separately, the panel also recommended a new treatment to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants.
In other developments:
Donald Trump has threatened to sue the New York Times and CNN over the outlets' reporting on a preliminary intelligence assessment on the US strikes in Iran that found the operation did less damage to nuclear sites than the administration has claimed.
NBC News is reporting that the White House plans to limit intelligence sharing with members of Congress after an early assessment of damage caused by US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites were leaked this week, a senior White House official confirmed to the network.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio has announced a new visa restriction policy he said was aimed at stopping the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs into the United States.
US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy leaves Moscow, the US embassy in Russia says, according to Reuters.
The White House has recommended terminating US funding for nearly two dozen programs that conduct war crimes and accountability work globally, including in Myanmar, Syria and on alleged Russian atrocities in Ukraine, according to three US sources familiar with the matter and internal government documents reviewed by Reuters.
Donald Trump has not decided on a replacement for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and a decision isn't imminent, a person familiar with the White House's deliberations said on Thursday, as one central bank policymaker said any move to name a 'shadow' chair would be ineffective.
Donald Trump's administration is planning to deport migrant Kilmar Abrego for a second time, but does not plan to send him back to El Salvador, where he was wrongly deported in March, a lawyer for the administration told a judge on Thursday. The deportation will not happen until after Abrego is tried in federal court on migrant smuggling charges, a White House spokesperson said.
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